Food and Eczema

[MunchedTooManyMarsLady]

DT1 (11months) has eczema on the back of her legs and on her torso. None of my family (or DH's) have ever had eczema. What I'd like to know is what foods should we avoid, cut down on etc. Would like to treat her holistically as I'm not a big fan of chemicals and would like to see if I can control it from the inside as well as the outside.

If this has been done before then please forgive me and could you link the thread? Thanks all

[misdee]

try the allergies board. might be some ideas on there to try.

tbh elimination diets are very hard and needs to be done under the supervision of gp/dietician.

[MunchedTooManyMarsLady]

Thanks!

[Chandra]

It may help to keep a diary where you wite what they ate and their reactions, I have noticed that at that age DS had flares when he had had far too much protein in a single day (for example fish fingers at lunch and red meat at dinner), but every child is different so this advice may not be very helpful. If you have a chance, it may be worth it to follow Gina Ford's "The Contented Little Baby Book of Weaning" as it has a program for the introduction of food that allow you to test for reactions (you introduce a new element every three days that way you can spot what may be causing the problem). But again, sometimes the causes are not related to food so while you find what may be causing it, Aveeno cream may help.

[Uwila]

My toddler developed eczema a coupleof months ago. I tried associating it with various foods, but nothing I tried would produce the reaction twice. Also tried testing synthetics vs. cotton clothes. Again, could get the reaction to appear twice. So, it may be that she just get's these rashes and it has nothing to do with an alergy to food or things she contacts (i.e. clothing). I asked the GP about it, and she said that if there was a food allergy, it would show up within 4 hours of having eaten the food. She said some people think it's related to something the toddler ate two days ago, but that simply isn't true. I was relieved to hear this because when the eczema comes on, it's a lot easier to recall what has been eaten over the last few hours rather than the day before yesterday.

It turns out that my husbands 3 sisters also got this, and outgrew it. So, hopefully dd will outgrow it as well.

Eczema also tend to run in familes where asthma and hayfever exist. And while neither DH nor I have this, we both have syblings/parents with these conditions.

[KBear]

There is lots of useful info on this (which is how I found Mumsnet). My DS has a reaction to bananas - I read about banana allergy on another website, tried and it hey presto, it worked, completely. Now ezcema-free. His face was affected the worst, red raw and weeping, could never kiss his cheeks. Now his skin is soft and kissable. I look at his baby/toddler photos and it's so sad to see him smiling away with split lips and savagely sore skin.

I tell everyone about my DS because I never would have thought something so innocuous as a banana could cause such an awful reaction.

good luck on your quest for the answer.

[louli]

My DS suffers from eczema and the dematologist told us that citrus, kiwi,strawberry, honey, marmite were no no's.

[JPM]

MunchedTooManyMarsLady - I've taken my son for Bioresonance treatment (he is 2) for his allergies. He has so far been treated for Stawberries, Cats and Wool. Have another session booked in next week for Grasses then a follow up for Polyester.

Don't ask me how, but it works!!!! Take a look at this . This is where I go and the website gives you all the details.

[JPM]

Forgot to add - DS now eats Strawberry yoghurts, lollies etc, cuddles nanny's cat and lays about on our wool carpets with no reaction at all - unlike last year when all these things would make his skin flare up!!! Let me know if you want any further info in layman's terms.

[JPM]

Bumping for MunchedTooManyMarsLady if you're around

[Chandra]

Talking about """strange" allergens, DS has a contact allergy to tomatoes. He can eat them, as long as they don't touch his skin, he is fine.

[JPM]

V strange Chandra my DS has exactly the same problem - weird eh??

[MunchedTooManyMarsLady]

Thanks JPM. I'm only looking into the food side as we've never had ezcema before. I do have a history of hayfever though. It comes and goes. DD2 has a reaction to apples, though I think it's actually the pesticides on certain apples. Don't know which so she just eats organic or fully peeled apples. She came up with huge hives each time she ate apples. She would wake with the pain. DT1 is so tiny and her left leg esp. looks so sore. She's constantly trying to itch. Have dispatched sister off to States for Aveeno (thanks to you lot) and just looking to see if there's anything else that I can do. Instant reaction was to cut out wheat, but then I forgot and gave her toast like her brother. Am rubbing in Aqueous whenever I remember. The Dr thinks that it may just be baby ezcema, which I hope it is. The other kids had tiny patches on their faces when they were tiny and I ignored it and it went away. Not so easy with DT1 as the patches are/were very sore. Thank you all so much for your suggestions and ideas. Obviously I wouldn't do a full exclusionary diet without talking to GP or nutritionist. Am seeing homeopath tomorrow. And me the woman that never bothered with things like that before.

[Chandra]

I don't know why doctors continue recomending Aqueous cream, although there are some children who benefit from it, many end up reacting badly to it.

[Chandra]

I'm sorry, what I meant to say was to watch out in case that happens. Another thing is that Acqueous cream is very "light", at the beginning of DS eczema I needed to apply it at every nappy change (8 times a day), we moved from that to Eucerin (3 times a day) that was a blessing. However, I must add that DS's eczema was quite severe.